Dilator

ABSTRACT

A system for accessing a surgical target site and related methods, involving an initial distraction system for creating an initial distraction corridor, and an assembly capable of distracting from the initial distraction corridor to a secondary distraction corridor and thereafter sequentially receiving a plurality of retractor blades for retracting from the secondary distraction corridor to thereby create an operative corridor to the surgical target site, both of which may be equipped with one or more electrodes for use in detecting the existence of (and optionally the distance and/or direction to) neural structures before, during, and after the establishment of an operative corridor to a surgical target site.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dilator showing our new design; and,

FIG. 2 is a side view thereof.

The broken lines illustrate part of the distal portion that forms nopart of the claimed design. The dilator is circular as seen from theend. The break line is shown at the wide end to indicate that only thedistal portion of the dilator is illustrated. Only the ends and one sideof the article is shown in the drawing or described in thespecification. It is understood that the appearance of any part of thearticle not shown in the drawing or described in the specification formsno part of the claimed design. In re Zahn, 617 F.2d 261, 204 USPQ 988(CCPA 1980). Therefore, the determination of patentability is based onthe design for the article shown and described.

The ornamental design for a dilator, as shown and described.